Having gathered peaches and grapes from an orchard in the Virginia hill country, I also happened by some orange butterfly weed on the roadside. Arranged, they seemed to reflect earlier still life works that the Romans (and originally Greeks) termed xenia. These earliest still life motifs represented abundance and hospitality, despite nature’s apparent chaos.

Here, in homage to that tradition, I added a close-up of a Roman fresco from that time to the background. Finally, the tin bowl and wooden table provided a rustic simplicity, or an element of rhopography (classical name for still life), at the base of the piece.

1st place - Still Life